Keywords
Citation
(2010), "Scotland - Scottish government launches healthcare quality strategy", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 23 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2010.06223gab.009
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Scotland - Scottish government launches healthcare quality strategy
Article Type: News and views From: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Volume 23, Issue 7
Keywords: Quality Improvement, Patient care, Evidence-based practice
Health boards in Scotland are introducing a scheme to help nurses free up time so they can spend more hours on direct patient care, the Scottish government has announced.
The roll-out of the Releasing Time to Care (RTC) initiative, which aims to improve efficiency and quality in the NHS, was given the go-ahead in the Scottish Government’s Healthcare Quality Strategy.
The strategy, which was published on Monday, sets out the actions the Scottish government will take to improve the quality of NHS healthcare in Scotland.
Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said it would put patients at the heart of everything the NHS does, and give people a new confidence in the health service.
“The task facing us all is to ensure the way patients are treated becomes as important to everyone delivering healthcare as how quickly they are treated. The Quality Strategy will enable us to achieve this”, she said.
Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of the BMA in Scotland said: “If the quality strategy is to be more than just another policy document, there must be a long-term commitment to an evidence-based approach to quality that is not pushed off course by short-term political imperatives.
“Focusing on evidence-based policy that has proven clinical outcomes for patients will ensure that limited resources can be used effectively to deliver improvements to the care and treatment of patients”.
For more information: www.healthcarerepublic.com